It's still possible to sign up for Klara Szlezák's Course "Literal and Literary Spaces: Intermedial Relations between Architecture and Literature" (June 2016).
In her exploration of the concept of interiority-both as a spatial and a mental concept-Diana Fuss in her book The Sense of an Interior (2004) intriguingly links the disciplines of architecture and literary studies, arguing that "the most critical bridge between the architectural and the psychological interior is the human sensorium: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell" (17). Taking this approach as its point of departure, this seminar investigates further areas of contact and overlap, beyond the concept of 'interiority,' between the distinct media of architecture and literature. Not only do both media, each with their own idiosyncratic means of expression, both create and derive meaning from interiority; other concepts that link the two are, among others, '(de-)/construction,' 'imagination,' 'politics,' 'regionalism and (trans)nationalism,' or 'memory.'The materials discussed in class-selected case studies from American, English, French, and German literature and architecture-will serve to address the following research questions: How can literary texts and architectural structures be put in dialogue with each other? Which are the methods with which we read and interpret literature and how are they comparable to those with which we read and interpret buildings? How can architectural constructs impact on the creation on literatures? And how can literature influence architectural constructs?
Teaching language: English.
Here you can find further information and sign up for the course.